How Micro Moments Drive Traffic

Written by Sellr Team August 17, 2017

Spur of the (Micro) Moments

You might not be familiar with micro moments in name, but you’ve probably had thousands of them. Imagine this:

You’re driving home with your friends after dinner and realize a game will be televised in 45 minutes and no one has any reason to go home until it’s over. Your passenger grabs their phone and looks up “liquor stores near me”. While the search pulls up, everyone starts talking about what they want to drink. You’ve got beers and a couple of scotches on the list. While looking at the search results, you see that a particular store is close by and has exactly what you’re looking for.

That’s it! That’s your micro moment. It came and went that quickly. You and your car full of friends just made a purchase decision that improved the business of a particular liquor store and the rest lost business in that moment.

Which store do you want to be?

Making the Most of Micro Moments

Of course you want to be the store that is chosen in the micro moment—but how do you do that? Search Engine Land says that nearly 60% of searches start on a mobile device. If people are looking for products on mobile, the chances are high that they want the product now and want to find it close by.

With the rise of mobile searches, the number of “near me” searches has doubled.

What are Near Me Searches and How Do I Show Up in Them?

Like the name implies, “Near Me” searches are searches that include the phrase “Near Me”, for example, “Shoe stores near me”. Search engine algorithms, the criteria used to determine what results are given to a user, include location. This means that when you are promoting products online, you need to include information about your location. We’ve talked about the importance of keeping your NAP—name address, and phone number—up to date, but it also means that when writing social posts and updating your website, you need to remember to include location-based information; city, popular local events, tourist destinations, and city nicknames are good to use as keywords.

Here is a list to jump start your creative juices:

Motor City sandwich shop (Detroit, MI deli)

ATL Music Midtown premiere styles (Atlanta clothing store where Music Midtown is held)

Huntington, CA Surf City surf shop (Surf shop in Huntington, CA, known as Surf City USA)

Using these unique identifiers within your content will give search engines more information to match to searches. While you may show up in a generic city search, Nashville music store, you will have a lot of competition. A more specific search, Opryland music store, will garner results to visitors of Opryland looking for music as well as Nashville because search engines are evolved enough to know that Opryland is in Nashville.

Be the Best

Consumers have the world at their fingertips—literally. Since they can find what they want when they want it, why wouldn’t they ask for the best? The answer is that they do. Google Data reports that mobile searches for “best” have increased 80% between 2015 and 2017. Now, best is subjective but you have the ability to include it in your content so why not earn the increased exposure tossing “best” into your content can get you?!

Win Micro Moments By Being the Best in Town

The ability for consumers to search for what they want when they want it has forced retailers to up their marketing game. In order to win the business in the micro moments, you need to be smart about the way you word your content. Let people know you’re the best in your area and think about the attractions that visitors might use to find you in their micro moments.

Give them what they’re looking for and get the business you want (and deserve)!